Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History (79 page)

The young Sul Ross
: This is the way he looked when he killed Comanche war chief Peta Nocona at the Battle of Pease River and recaptured Nocona’s wife, who turned out to be Cynthia Ann Parker. Ross later became governor of Texas.

Ranald S. Mackenzie during the Civil War, 1863 or 1864
: The man who would destroy the Comanches and become America’s greatest Indian fighter graduated first in his class at West Point in 1862 at the age of twenty-one and by August he was serving in the army in the Second Battle of Manassas. By the end of the war—at the advanced age of twenty-four—he had been promoted to brevet brigadier general.

Quanah in 1877
: The earliest known photo of him, two years after his surrender. Though he is fully clad in traditional leather and fringe, one can still see how massive his forearms and upper body were. He was considered the most formidable fighter of his generation of Comanches.

The onslaught of the hide men
: In the 1870s the pursuit of the buffalo became less like hunting and more like extermination. In 1873 a hunter named Tom Nixon killed 3,200 in 35 days. In the winter of 1872 a single hide fetched $3.50. This “rick” of hides awaits shipment from Dodge City.

Kotsoteka Comanche chief Shaking Hand (Mow-way)
: On September 29, 1872, Mackenzie destroyed his village in the Texas Panhandle at the Battle of the North Fork of the Red River (or McClellan Creek). Ironically, Shaking Hand at the time was en route to Washington to talk peace with the Great Father.

Isa-tai in middle age
: Part medicine man, part con man, and part showman, Isa-tai appeared in 1874 as the Comanches’ great savior and messiah. His magic went disastrously wrong at the Battle of Adobe Walls. He later became Quanah’s rival in the reservation years.

Scalped buffalo hunter, 1868
: The Indians hated buffalo hunters and understood that they, more than the bluecoated federal soldiers, were destroying their way of life on the plains. This hunter, photographed by William Soule near Fort Dodge, met the same fate as hundreds of others like him.

Quanah and one of his wives
: He had eight of them, seven during the reservation period—an unusually high number. Most were quite attractive and not always happy to share their husband.

The formal Quanah
: Though he refused to give up his long hair, his multiple wives, or his peyote, he happily wore white man’s clothes when he traveled or went to town.

Star House
: Quanah built his magnificent ten-room house in 1890. It boasted a formal dining room and ten-foot ceilings, and was located on a splendid piece of high ground in the shadow of the Wichita Mountains north of Cache, Oklahoma.

Quanah and family, ca. 1908
: The aging chief and twenty members of his family on the porch at Star House. He had seven wives and twenty-three children during the reservation period, all of whom lived at the house. One of his wives said later that his greatest achievement was managing his own household.

Quanah in his bedroom, ca. 1897
: A clash of old and new. Note the framed portrait of his mother, Cynthia Ann, and his sister, Prairie Flower, on his left. It was his most cherished possession.